Earth Day Declaration: Our First CSR Report

As an organization founded on a commitment to our people and the environment, sustainability has never been just a service we offer our clients—it’s been our mission. When Frank and Al founded Woodard & Curran in 1979, they weren’t looking to build a firm that just did great work for their clients, they also wanted to build a firm that gave back to their employees as well. This is because they believed, as I do today, that the best way to produce excellent work is to hire exceptional people, nurture their talents, and give them meaningful work. This belief has helped us build a national firm full of people who are brilliant, but also passionate about making a difference in their communities.

Due to this inherent commitment of our employees, environmental integrity and community involvement have been fueled at the grassroots level through office-based outreach and dedicated project teams. However, as we continue to grow our expertise and headcount throughout the country, we knew it was time to cement our values across the firm by setting measurable goals and tracking our progress. Today I am proud to share our latest step in this journey with you—Woodard & Curran’s inaugural Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report. This document formally states our commitment to improve our overall social and environmental footprint by sharing our sustainability policy, reporting our baseline, documenting current and planned efforts and setting 2020 and 2025 sustainability objectives.

Our report and our goals examine many facets of our business—from the benefits we offer employees to the way we operate our offices to our local giving and volunteering efforts. The report celebrates some of the initiatives already underfoot, while also highlighting the goals and plans we have for the future. I encourage you to read the full report here, but in celebration of Earth Day, I also wanted to share a couple of the ways we’re working to lessen our collective environmental impact.

Through our project work we have supported water management planning for systems impacting 85% of California’s population and, in 2017 we advanced the cleanup of more than 25 Superfund sites across the country. In 2016, our operations and management teams worked with communities and businesses to clean 15.7 billion gallons and recycle 11.6 billion gallons of wastewater. Additionally, by 2020 we plan to increase the number of Envision Sustainability Professionals from 5 to 10 so that we can continue to provide a keen sustainability lens on every infrastructure project.

For our offices, we’ve developed a working plan to reduce our carbon footprint using as many direct methods as possible, before purchasing carbon offsets or renewable energy credits, to meet our ultimate goal of 20% GHG emissions reduction per employee by 2025. Part of this effort is to continue to deploy sophisticated technology to allow our employees to work remotely with colleagues and clients nationally. Skype and other online platforms have already allowed us to save 235 MT of CO2e by offering more a seamless telecommuting experience to our employees.

Finally, it’s impossible to talk about our commitment to the environment without mentioning the Woodard & Curran Foundation which, since its inception, has awarded more than $300,000 to 21 environmental organizations in the US and abroad. The Foundation is funded primarily by Woodard & Curran employees, and we plan to increase our annual corporate match to 100% of employee donations by 2020.

We are excited to enter this new stage of our sustainability efforts, one that is backed by hard numbers and concrete goals. Although there will be a lot of hard decisions ahead, we are ready to continue to rise to the model that Frank and Al solidified decades ago and be a firm that holds the interest of its people and protection of the environment to the highest regard.